As sort of a follow up to my Words and Change post wherein I discussed surprising yourself and trying new things to change your current situation(for the better) this post is more of that.
Humans tend to get stuck in this “I am x” or “I am a y” or “I’m z and will always be z” or “I’ve never been good at N so I could never do N” sort of self talk probably because its the most comfortable way to be.
Most people don’t really want to change, they don’t want to have to learn anything new- they just want to be able to do the same old things they’ve always done but magically think/hope their life will change for the better if its not what they want at the time.
So for the same of this post lets just say a “typical” person is one in that their abilities, lifestyle, skillset, and “ceiling” are set by the time they are 30 years old and outside of some great stroke of luck or major event they are pretty much locked into that for the rest of their life.
With that being said an atypical person will be one that continues to change, learn and grow for their whole life no matter the age.
At 30 they could be accountant and at 40 a published author- cool shit like that. You all know those stories- some will come from people in life you admire who made huge positive changes in their lives(and of others) by taking off on some path most people wouldn’t dare to tread past the age of 30 or whatever.
Also for this article a “typical” life would be one most people live- I’m not putting it down- its a fine life for most everyone in the world- but lets say we desire an atypical life- one where you are not “stuck” or set in being who your family and friends know you to be.
Now here’s the thing- if you try to rise up out of your typical life you are going to find many if not most of your family and friends will try and pull you back down into your typical life-
Seeing someone else changing and learning new things- moving into new spaces(careers, interests) makes the typical person uncomfortable af because it reminds them that they could do the same BUT most of are unable to or afraid of making any attempts for themselves.
So I’d say outside of getting over your own fears- dealing with your family, friends, co-workers is the toughest part of trying to change/learn/grow/rise out of your typical life.
Don’t be a coward with these new pursuits- the common cowardly approach is to try the new thing and be hit with some difficulty then quit and complain to everyone within earshot about how difficult and impossible it is in hopes they sympathize and agree with you about quitting.
You see- when people come to me in this state of mind giving their excuses I don’t let them have their excuses- I don’t sympathize- I tell them to not give up, to not be a quitter- hence I don’t have many friends 🤣
What are your family and friends telling you when you’re complaining and want to quit? And remember- loving people is difficult, not loving them is easy- telling the truth is difficult sometimes but you have to do it for yourself and for your family and friends.
Dying with regrets is FAR worse then being uncomfortable chasing your dreams while alive.
If you’re not surprising yourself and/or others around you with the positive changes you are making in your learning, professional interests, and skillset you are not being bold enough.
“Fortune favors the bold” it is said- and that doesn’t just refer to a fortune of monetary assets- a fortune of knowledge- a fortune of fun- a fortune of excitement- of possibility- of life.
So anyway back to this year- surprise yourself this year!
How am I myself going to surprise myself?
I’m going to finally jump into serious web dev- its not that big of a surprise given I code in C# and used to be an html/Flash designer waaaaaaay back when but its still something I’m afraid of/something I didn’t think I could or want to do- it makes me uncomfortable-
I’ve hit a point where a lot of my ideas are held back by my lack of web dev skills- like a ton of my ideas require me running a Node.js server and writing my own API’s for it- after starting to learn it I see its super simple but I was just being a bitch before.
So I’ve started on my path to learning that staff- I’m old, so I read books- I bought three Node.js related books I can’t wait to get into when I get back to California.
Last year I got a little experience interacting with Ethereum API’s with my super retarded little joke game EthP33n
That was uncomfortable as it was new/different but I’m glad I did it-
Anyway this is just a short post-
TLDR- be uncomfortable rn learning new things/skills(NOT in video games yer playing) you are afraid of if you want to change your life.